Brazil TV apparently shows woman being mugged while being interviewed about rampant crime

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazilian TV is showing footage of a woman apparently being robbed while being interviewed on television about crime near Rio de Janeiro’s main train station.

The images of the interview conducted Wednesday by TV Globo were posted on its G1 internet news portal.

The woman is complaining in the clip about the lack of police presence near the station when the would-be mugger approaches her from behind and rips off what appears to be a gold necklace.

The clip shows the thief fleeing down a busy street, and the reporter is seen chasing him for a few seconds.

The thief, however, was left empty handed. He dropped the necklace, which was returned to the woman.

Brazil has been on a push to clean up crime before the World Cup this summer. The preparations for the Cup — and for the summer Olympics in 2016 — have gone less than smoothly for the South American country.

On Thursday, more than 100 employees returned to work at the Arena da Baixada after organizers promised to begin paying the salaries owed to them.

Two other World Cup stadiums are unfinished, including the one hosting the opener in Sao Paulo. Part of the work there was stopped because of a recent worker’s death. The other stadium yet to be completed is in the wetlands city of Cuiaba.

Strike conditions are going less well for work on Olympic facilities.

Striking construction workers stayed off the job at the Olympic Park Thursday — the main cluster of venues for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics — defying a court order for them to return.

The work stoppage began a week ago and comes as the International Olympic Committee is sending top-level advisers to Rio to tackle delays threatening South America’s first Olympics.

A statement from Rio Mais, a consortium building venues at Olympic Park, said workers remained on strike. The work stoppage began April 3 and affects at least 2,000 workers.

A regional labor court ordered the strikers back to work on Wednesday and said a settlement should be negotiated in the next 30 days.

The Brazilian army said gunmen launched at least five attacks against troops in the Rio de Janeiro slum complex occupied on Saturday in a bid to improve security two months before the start of the World Cup soccer tournament.

The army says in a note the attacks were carried out Monday night by pistol-wielding gunmen in the Mare complex of 15 slums in northern Rio.

One motorcyclist was wounded in the arm. None of the troops were wounded.

The occupation is part of the government’s “pacifying police force” strategy aimed at taking over some of Rio’s more than 1,000 slums before Brazil plays host to the World Cup as well as the 2016 Olympics.